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16 weeks old - started crying before night sleep

2 replies

polinkin · 29/01/2014 10:23

Dear all,

Have anyone come across a similar situation? What could it be?

We have a nighttime routine with our 16 weeks old son. Bath, massage, reading a book, then feed (I breastfeed him) for about 10-20 minutes and he falls asleep sucking. He sleeps in our bed.
All was good until last Thursday (6 days ago).
But since then every night he almost falls asleep, and then he awakens and starts screaming as if he is in pain or major discomfort. I offer the nipple again, but he doesn't want to take it. We thought it may be burps or farts, so we pick him up, try an burp him (once he burped, but other times he didn't), massage his belly to fart him, carry him around and try to settle him (he cries and arches his back and is very unhappy). This lasts for about 10 minutes, then I offer him the boob again and he agrees to take it, sucks it sobbing for another 10 minutes and then finally falls asleep. Anyone has any pointers as to why this can be happening and what to do? I am at a loss.

  • we haven't started doing anything differently on Thursday [same routine, roughly the same time of going to bed - between 9 and 10 pm - this is when he naturally falls asleep. And yes, I tried putting him to bed at 7 or 8 or 9, but the result always the same - he falls asleep between nine and ten whatever I do]
  • I haven't started eating anything different
  • He only does it at night. There are other times during the day when I nurse him to sleep (like his morning nap just now), but he happily falls asleep without crying

    Ideas we went through:
  • we read about silent reflux - it doesn't seem to be it (weird to have it once a day for a short period of time)
  • too early for a wonder week 19 and also seems to be lasting for quite a while
  • we thought maybe he is overtired, tried putting him for a nap beforehand. He still cries, nap or no nap.

    Please help - it's so heartbreaking to see him crying so desperately!
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glentorres · 29/01/2014 10:58

It looks like your baby is having bad dreams :(

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polinkin · 29/01/2014 15:41

Glentorres,

Thank you for the pointer.
I searched for bad dreams and found a couple of interesting articles:
www.drgreene.com/qa-articles/truth-dreams-nightmares-night-terrors/
www.drgreene.com/qa-articles/what-are-night-terrors/

It says there that such events might be caused by sleep deprivation and irregular sleeping schedules, so I guess I will try to get him on a more regimented sleeping schedule and see if this helps.
Thank you!

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